Museum of Stupid

I'm thinking very seriously about joining the horde that is about to descend on Ken Ham's ode to ignorance, the Creation Museum, on Friday, August 7th. It's only 2 hours away in Kentucky and I'll get the chance to meet teh internet's most feared blogger, PZ Myers, along with 250 students, teachers, scientists, and freethinkers. If I register with the Secular Student Alliance before August 5th, I can even get a group discount ticket priced at $10.

Sounds like a great, fun experience and a chance to meet some funny, intelligent people. How in the world can I resist?

Would any of my friends be interested in making the trek with me?

Still Funny: Super Michael Jackson Bros

Minor Blog ImperYOUvments

Made some small cosmetic changes and added a twitter/facebook status feed in the top right corner. I had to remove the "Candy Shoppe" title above my subscription buttons because it felt unbalanced with the new elements. It's a shame, though, because I really liked that title. Who could resist clicking when there's a mysteriously implicit promise of some kind of electronic sweetie? Maybe I'll find a way to add it back...

I also added author names next to the comment links in the Recent Comments sidebar.

Favorite Film Scene: Adaptation

The screenplay seminar scene from Adaptation is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time.

I'm planning on making this a recurring subject, so look out for more "Favorite Film Scenes" in the future. And be sure to post descriptions or links to your favorite movie scenes in the comments below!

Best of Comic Con 2009 Cosplay

600 Amazing Costumes

Jurassic Park Musical Legacy Lives On

When I was young, I devoured everything Jurassic Park. I read the books and watched the films countless times. The soundtrack to Jurassic Park was one of the very first CDs I ever owned and the Jurassic Park theme was one of the first songs I taught myself to play on the piano. John Williams's work has probably affected my musical sensibilities more than any other musician or composer in existence. So it should not be surprising that every time I hear that memorable score I'm hit with a reverberating twang of deep seated nostalgia.

The power of that music still manages to move me, even when the compositional reins have changed hands. Yes, I own Don Davis's admirable but ultimately disappointing score to Jurassic Park 3. Yes, I tracked down Michael Giacchino's catchy soundtrack to the Lost World video game. And yet, despite my fervor, I've somehow managed to miss out on Stephan Schütze's wonderfully romantic orchestral score to Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis.

Well thankfully I have cast off my ignorance and seen the light! Jurassic Park lovers should listen carefully. Schütze lovingly references all of the major themes while taking them in new directions. Honestly, this kind of writing is like ear candy to me. My favorite track is probably "Welcome" which I've embedded below.

           

But there's much more where that comes from. The uploader has also graciously provided links to download the tracks for free in the movie description boxes. Take advantage of it while you still can!

Sherlock Holmes Hollywood-ized

Or should I say bastardized? I don't know about this. I certainly have my doubts.

Back (and Better Than Ever?)

I've returned from a lovely trip to Cleveland, Ohio, where I had a blast hanging out with friends and family. We ate at some great restaurants, saw downtown, went to a comedy club, checked out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, watched a Grand Canyon film at the Science Museum's Omnimax, bought some toys at Big Fun, and helped a friend have his first (and probably last) White Castle experience! All in all, a successful trip, I'd say.

The highlight of the trip for me was just hanging out with friends and family. It was great to see everyone! I suppose I'll also add the Omnimax experience; even though the film was lame, it managed to rekindle some childhood wonder. This really is the closest thing to 3d films I'll ever experience and, occasionally, it was quite convincing. I wish they'd release more films in this format.

The lowlight of the trip was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is a beautiful building with well made exhibits, but the six story high structure is designed with open excalators. This was fine for the first few floors, but vertigo hit me hard on the 4th-6th floors so much so that I was terrified and disoriented. To make things worse, there is only one elevator, so I often found myself waiting for long periods of time just to catch up with my friends on other floors. As if from a nightmare, I was forced to wait the longest on the Bruce Springsteen floor where they blasted his mind numbingly annoying and godawful tunes. Oh how I hate that man.

Even lower than that experience, however, was my total freakout over "losing" my dad's cellphone, which I was using for its GPS. I only have one strong and distinct memory of where I put it for later use, but apparently I decided to move it into my backpack and not form any memory of the event. So I concluded wrongly that it was stolen. And I made my companions miss what was to be our last outing together watching the movie Galapagos at the Omnimax. (By the way, the Darwin Exhibit was in Cleveland at the time and I'm just a little bit sore that we didn't schedule the time to go see it. Oh well)

I still had a great time. Thanks to all for helping make it happen!

Round on the Ends, Hi in the Middle

I'm prepping for a long road trip to my birth city, Cleveland Ohio, tomorrow to meet up with family and friends from college. I'm planning on leaving this cumbersome laptop at home and therefore disconnecting myself from all the lovely internet temptations. Expect the blog to go dormant for a little while (more so than usual).

Of course, I'll still have my ipod to check emails and my favorite sites. I mean, I'm not about to go Amish on this trip.

Wish me luck! Driving is almost always a nerve wracking and terrifying experience for me and it seems I can't find my gps so there's a good chance I'll get lost. Here's hoping I make it there and back again!

Music SECRET!

Resident Evil 5: Revenge of the Sith

Hey, no one told me the soundtrack to Resident Evil 5 is actually quite awesome! There are very few, if any, who can score a John Williams-esque score (although adding lots of piccolo slides helps) so that's why I can forgive Kota Suzuki for borrowing a little from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Listen for comparison:


(Start at :58 sec mark)


(Start at 1:17 sec mark)

MIND BLOWN: How to Open a Banana

How Auto Tune Works

I had no idea it was used by so many musicians. Everyone freakin' cheats!

Extreme Meets Real Ghostbusters

I used to give Extreme Ghostbusters a lot of flak. The art style is too gothic, the new technology is too unfamiliar, and the characters are an obvious attempt to be politically correct. I mean, their heart is in the right place, but a Puerto Rican Ghostbuster, a Goth girl, a nerdy African American AND a paraplegic? That's a bit much.

But after recently watching a couple of episodes, my criticisms have softened. It's obvious that the show writers have a lot of respect for the original Ghostbusters series, beit through the reappearance of old storylines or references to old characters. Nowhere is this more evident than in the two episode special "Back in the Saddle" which reunites the now aged original Ghostbusters. I love the details, from the updated character designs, the use of the old proton packs, to the return of the original voice actors. The episode is worth a peek for any self-proclaimed Ghostbusters fan, not to mention it likely shares a lot in common with the forthcoming Ghostbusters 3 movie.

Stephan Fry on America: Just Add Sugar

After completing a trip to all 50 of these United States, actor, thinker, cultural attache', and now Kentucky colonel, Stephen Fry gave a lovely little lecture on the differences between Great Britain and America and why he loves the States.

Read the speech in full here

I had American family too. Those from my mother’s side who survived the horrors of the holocaust went to Israel or America or both. All that is, except for my mother’s parents who chose to make their home here in England. American relations would descend into our drab early 60s British world of grey weather, grey trousers and grey attitudes dripping colourful slacks, pants and jackets, sparkling jewels, thrilling cameras, perfumed furs and expensive tchotchkes of all kinds. They brought these treasures to us in Pan-Am or TWA overnight bags or ‘grips’ that also contained thrilling trophies of their jet travel: miniature salt cellars and pepper pots, paper napkins bearing the airline’s crest and foil sachets that held moist lemon-scented cleansing squares, or ‘handy freshen-up wipettes’ of unimaginably exotic strangeness and wonder. Over these precious souvenirs my brother and I would fight like wild beasts. Back home in the states, as my Yankee cousins made clear by their astonishment at our conspicuous lack of them, they had ice machines, air conditioning, stereo sets and colour televisions. Damn it, in Britain even our TV was grey. In my eyes my American cousins were little short of gods: their basketball sneakers shamed my plimsolls, their t-shirts laughed at my short-sleeved air-tex and their Levi jeans made a blushing disgrace of my bagged corduroys. The details of suburban American living I think excited me more than the mythology of the West or of Chicago’s South Side or of the surfers of Santa Monica. I liked trying to understand what bake-offs, yard sales, drive-in movies and spelling bees were, what sophomores and semesters might be and what homecoming queens and commencement and proms and Spring Break and Elks and Shriners and pledge rings and trick or treat could possibly portend.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! (even though I'm one day late)

Party with a Pirate - OK SPRING Contest

Music sound familiar? The director asked to use my pirate theme "All Hands on Deck!" for their Okanagan Springs Brewery contest entry. Sounds like they did pretty well, too. From the email:

"...within a week we had over 800 votes and over 2000 views. Some of the competition had been posted for 3 plus weeks and didnt come close! We won the contest and are recieving party supplies and lots of beer. Thanks again for the track, it worked great."